Wuxi and surrounding cities in the Yangtze River Delta region have a high concentration of manufacturing enterprises, and more and more companies are starting to plan for PLM systems. However, it's not uncommon for them to encounter pitfalls during the selection process. Based on our extensive experience serving local companies, we have summarized the four most common misconceptions in PLM selection to help companies avoid these pitfalls.
Pitfall 1: Blindly pursuing big brands and ignoring suitability
Many companies assume that imported big brands are the best, but they ignore their own size and business needs. Large PLM systems are complex and costly to implement. Small and medium-sized enterprises often only use 20% of the functions but have to pay the full cost, and the subsequent maintenance and upgrade costs are an ongoing burden.
✅ Recommendation: Prioritize domestically produced PLM systems that are suitable for your industry, featuring lightweight architecture, support for phased deployment, and higher cost-effectiveness.
Pitfall 2: Focusing only on software functionality, ignoring delivery capabilities.
PLM is not standardized software that can be used immediately after purchase; the implementation and delivery capabilities directly determine whether the system can run smoothly in business operations. Many service providers only sell software, but their delivery teams lack experience and are unfamiliar with the R&D and processes in the manufacturing industry, ultimately resulting in a disconnect between the system and actual business operations after it goes live.
✅ Recommendation: Focus on examining the service provider's industry case studies and delivery team experience, and prioritize teams that understand R&D, processes, and can implement the entire process.
Pitfall 3: Ignoring historical data migration leads to gaps in performance after deployment.
Many manufacturing companies that have been operating for many years have accumulated a large number of outdated drawings, historical BOMs, and process documents. If data migration capabilities are overlooked during the selection process, manual re-entry will be required after the system goes live, which is not only a huge workload but also prone to data errors, affecting system usability.
✅ Recommendation: Confirm in advance whether the service provider offers data governance and historical migration services, and whether they can complete the cleaning, deduplication, and batch import of existing drawings.
Pitfall 4: Choosing an out-of-town service provider leaves no after-sales guarantee.
After the PLM system goes live, daily maintenance, process adjustments, and feature iterations are all long-term needs. Slow response times and high on-site costs from service providers in other regions, coupled with the inability to handle emergency faults promptly, can easily disrupt a company's normal R&D progress.
✅ Recommendation: Prioritize local service providers in Wuxi and the Yangtze River Delta region, as they can provide fast on-site service and are more familiar with the business characteristics of local manufacturing enterprises.
Huazhao Software, a local industrial digitalization service provider in Wuxi, possesses the officially authorized IntePLM domestic system. Over 80% of its core team members have more than ten years of PLM industry experience. It provides full-process services from consulting, implementation, data migration to long-term operation and maintenance, making it a cost-effective choice for manufacturing enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta region.